Sen. Rick Scott of Florida is calling on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to force accountability on the Biden administration over America’s porous and insecure southern border.
The Florida Republican joined a dozen other GOP senators, led by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, to demand that McConnell follow through on the House’s recent impeachment of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The senators noted that Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democrats intend to take the unprecedented step of simply tabling individually the two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas.
Read: Florida Sen. Rick Scott Blasts Border Deal, Calling It “Surrender”
The House voted 214-213 along party lines to impeach Mayorkas for willfully and systematically refusing to comply with federal immigration law as well as breaching public trust.
“It is imperative that the Senate Republican conference prepare to fully engage our Constitutional duty and hold a trial,” Lee, Scott and the others wrote.
They noted that Schumer’s plan “is an action rarely contemplated and never taken by the U.S. Senate in the history of our Republic.”
“It remains to be seen if the Senate rules will even allow us to brush aside our duty in this manner, but one thing is sure, if a similar strategy was contemplated by Senate Republicans when we were in the majority with a Republican occupying the White House, the opposition would be fierce and the volume from Democrats would be deafening,” they added.
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“We call on you to join us in our efforts to jettison this approach by Democrats to shirk their Constitutional duty, ensure that the Senate conducts a proper trial, and that every Senator, Republican and Democrat, adjudicates this matter when the Senate returns.”
Mayorkas would likely survive a Senate impeachment trial. The Senate is split 50-50 and Republicans would need at least a two-thirds majority to boot him.
Still, Democrats pursued two impeachment trials against former President Donald Trump, despite facing and failing to reach the same vote hurdle.
In an email to constituents on Saturday, Scott noted that since President Joe Biden took office, the nation has seen an “alarming rise in criminals, drugs and terrorists coming across our southern border, all thanks to this administration’s open border policies.”
“It’s bad for our families’ safety and a threat to our national security, and it’s why I’ve been saying for years that Mayorkas must be held accountable for his willful, total failure to secure the border.”
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“It’s time the Senate now do its job and hold a trial. Unsurprisingly, we’re already hearing rumors that Democrats want to sweep this under the rug and move on, but I won’t let that happen,” he added.
“Senate Leadership failed to ensure our border was secure before sending American tax dollars to Ukraine. We cannot allow another failure by letting Democrats stop the Senate from conducting a full impeachment trial, too. … Republicans must take a stand.”
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